Fort Point

Fort Point is a masonry seacost fortification located under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. The fort was built by Spain in 1794 as the "Castillo de San Joaquin", but the fortress was abandoned in 1835 after the Mexican Army moved to Sonoma. In 1846, John C. Fremont's American soldiers occupied the empty castillo and spiked the cannons. In 1853, the US Army Corps of Engineers began to fortify the area once more, and the fort's first cannon were mounted in 1861 at the start of the American Civil War. The fort was supposed to defend the bay from enemy warships, and it was used for barracks, training, and storage until it was decommissioned in 1970. The fort then became a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.